Travel + leisure gives tips on exploring Vietnam by train

The Hanoitimes - In recent years, not many people take the train through Vietnam and see the sights these days, because it’s very slow and the delays can be frustrating.

Travel + leisure, a US travel magazine based in New York City, has given some pieces of advice for travelers how to explore Vietnam by the Reunification Express (Tau Thong Nhat).
“The more I researched, the more I felt like the train was the most cohesive, immersive way to experience a wide swath of the country, and Vietnam might be the best country to experience by train” Katherine Wolkoff wrote for Travel + leisure.

The Reunification Express. Photo: Katherine Wolkoff

According to the writer, on their seven-day trip started with 48 hours in Hanoi, the capital city felt chaotic but vibrant dripping hot during the day, but cool and clear in the early morning.
The writer discovered that pho, basically the country’s version of chicken-noodle soup makes a perfect breakfast. It sounds counterintuitive to eat something hot when it’s scorching outside, but it actually cools down your body.
After Hanoi, the writer boarded her first train, a 17-hour overnight stretch that took she and her friends along the coast south to Da Nang. “I learned quickly that, as with photography, taking the train in Vietnam requires flexibility, but you start to find humor in situations that don’t go as expected,” the writer wrote.
They pulled into Da Nang in the afternoon and hopped in a taxi to Hoi An, a picturesque port town where she could see Vietnamese history punctuated by Chinese, French, and Japanese influences.
In recent years, not many people take the train through Vietnam and see the sights these days, because it’s very slow and the delays can be frustrating. According to the writer, taking the problems in stride would give us a new perspective — which was the whole point of going to Vietnam in the first place.
Earlier, Sputnik, a Russian news agency, news website platform and radio broadcast service, has just named Thong Nhat Railway (The Reunification Express) from Hanoi to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam the number one railway among the best astonishing train routes in the world.
Sputnik advises travelers that the Reunification Express includes modern air-conditioned sleeping cars that take passengers on a two-day journey from Hanoi to Saigon, Vietnam.